National Roundup

Pennsylvania
Police: Suspect tried to consume marijuana plant
SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — Perhaps it was a case of the munchies.
Police in northeastern Pennsylvania say an alleged pot dealer tried to destroy evidence by eating a marijuana plant.
The Times-Tribune reports that 33-year-old Jeremiah Carmody faces several drug-related charges following events on Monday in Scranton.
Police say Carmody tried to eat the plant after authorities went to his house to serve a warrant.
Authorities ended up seizing the remains of the plant, four pounds of marijuana, digital scales, $2,600 in cash and drug paraphernalia.
Carmody was in Lackawanna County Prison awaiting arraignment Monday night. It wasn’t immediately clear Tuesday if he had a lawyer.

New York
Ex-inmate get $2M in wrongful conviction case
NEW YORK (AP) — A man whose murder conviction was overturned after he spent 11 years in prison has been awarded $2 million by New York State.
The award settles a wrongful conviction lawsuit filed by Michael Clancy.
Clancy, an elevator repairman, was arrested in March 1997 in the killing of John Buono in the Bronx.
He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
He was released in 2008 after an informant told authorities he was present when another man killed Buono. A second informant later confirmed Clancy’s innocence.
Clancy’s attorney, Ronald Kuby, told The New York Times that the settlement was the fourth largest in a wrongful conviction case in New York State.
Clancy says he plans to buy his parents a house with the money.

New York
NYPD boosts unit to track social media violence
NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Police Department is planning to double the size of its gang unit to 300 detectives to combat teen violence fueled by dares and insults traded on social media.
Rather than target established street gangs involved in the drug trade, the reinforcements will focus mainly on “looser associations of younger men who identify themselves by the block they live on, or on which side of a housing development they reside,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in prepared remarks.
“Their loyalty is to their friends living in a relatively small area and their rivalries are based not on narcotics trafficking or some other entrepreneurial interest, but simply on local turf,” Kelly added. “In other words, ‘You come in to my backyard and you get hurt. You diss my crew and you pay the price.’”
The remarks were provided in advance of Kelly’s appearance Tuesday in San Diego at a gathering of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
Under the new plan, the NYPD gang unit will work more closely with other divisions that monitor social media for signs of trouble.
Kelly cited a recent case in which investigators used Facebook to track a turf war between two Brooklyn crews named the Very Crispy Gangsters and the Rockstars. The case resulted in dozens of arrests for shootings and other mayhem.
“By capitalizing on the irresistible urge of these suspects to brag about their murderous exploits on Facebook, detectives used social media to draw a virtual map of their criminal activity over the last three years,” Kelly said.
Detectives have seen instances where a gang member has taunted rivals by circulating a photo of himself posing in front of their apartment building. Orders of protection also have been posted as a means of intimidation, Kelly said.
The NYPD has developed strict guidelines for investigators using social networks “to instill the proper balance between the investigative potential of social network sites and privacy expectations,” Kelly said.
The rules allow officers to adopt aliases for their online work as long as they first get permission from the department. They also will use special laptops that protect their anonymity.
Staffing for the expanded unit will come from gradual redeployment from other areas of the department, not from new hires.

California
Court trims its award on ‘Nash Bridges’ profits
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A divided appellate court on Monday upheld Don Johnson’s multimillion jury award over profits from the series “Nash Bridges” but significantly reduced the amount the actor is eligible to receive.
The California 2nd District Court of Appeal panel voted 2-1 to uphold a verdict that determined the actor was owed millions from the hit series, but the panel cut the amount from $23.2 million down to $15 million.
The appeals court also limited the amount of interest the actor is eligible to receive, erasing an additional award of more than $28 million that a judge granted the actor. Johnson will receive interest on the award, but only an amount calculated from the date of the original verdict in July 2010.
The justices determined that jurors erred when they took into account that Johnson might have earned interest payments while fighting the case, which ended in 2010 with the multimillion verdict. The panel decided to add 5 percent interest to the original $15 million amount they agreed Johnson should receive, according to the opinion released Monday.
Johnson’s award was appealed by the series’ producers and financiers, Rysher Entertainment, 2929 Entertainment and Qualia Capital.
One justice agreed with the companies that Johnson’s verdict should be overturned because his claims were barred by the statute of limitations, but two justices sided with the actor.
“Nash Bridges” aired for six seasons on CBS.
“’Nash Bridges’ has been my baby since its inception and I’ve fought for years for my interest under our contractual agreement,” Johnson wrote in a statement, adding that he was gratified that the appeals court ruled in his favor. He sued over his stake in the show in February 2009.
Defense attorneys handling the case were not immediately available for comment. The companies could appeal Monday’s ruling to the California Supreme Court.
They argued at trial that the series was costly to produce and that was why Johnson hadn’t been paid more.
Johnson was awarded half of the show’s copyrights at trial, which made him eligible to receive continued profits from the show as long as it remains in syndication. His attorney Mark Holscher also praised the ruling, and a news release from his firm stated that the series is expected to earn more than $50 million in the coming years.?